European sky observers were surprised when the northern lights coloured the night sky red, green, and purple in many countries. People posted images across social media sharing the sky in the night over most of Europe in radiant tones of red, green, and magenta. The bright northern lights illuminated the sky and created a spectacular show as far south as Greece and Turkey. Overnight, the aurora borealis painted swaths of Russia, Ukraine, Siberia, and the Urals in green, scarlet, and purple.
A strong geomagnetic storm pushed the dazzling aurora show, which peaked as a strong G3 storm on the 5-grade scale used by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on November 5 at 12:40 pm EST. The 5-grade scale spans from G1 (minor) on the low end to G5 (severe) on the high end.
Northern lights generation
Such aurora shows are created by a powerful geomagnetic storm, a disturbance in the Earth's magnetic field generated by solar material from coronal mass ejections (CME). CMEs remove plasma and magnetic fields from the sun's atmosphere. According to spaceweather.com, this G3 geomagnetic storm was caused by not one but two CMEs that collided with Earth on November 4 and 5.
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The northern lights are generated by charged particles from the sun that enter the Earth's atmosphere at speeds of up to 45 million miles per hour (72 million kilometres per hour) and hit with gas molecules, releasing photons of light.
The supercharging of molecules in the Earth's atmosphere causes dazzling shows, normally limited to high latitudes for the northern lights and low latitudes for the southern lights. They are especially common near the North Pole.
Reports to be believed, the northern lights are anticipated to be stronger this year than in at least a decade due to an increase in solar activity.
Check out the images here:
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